His Grasp Is So Cold

[doomsday_disco]

“O come and go with me, no longer delay,
Or else, silly child, I will drag thee away.” —
“O father! O father! now, now keep your hold,
The Erl-King has seized me — his grasp is so cold!”

The spell breaks like a sudden crack in an ice-bound lake. Opoponax incense and black oud plunging into a heart-stopping shiver of ambergris accord and eucalyptus leaf.

[gentle-twig]

This one is kind of the inverse of what I expected: a snowball with a shadow of wood and incense rather than a frost dusted branch. In the opening I get the same aldehyde frost as in other Yules like The Crumpet-Fanlight Expedition and Snowman Beatdown. Here it is subtler than in the other two scents, scrubbed quite clean by eucalyptus and given heft by ambergris. I would say this is an ambergris-dominant blend, and it is doing a kind of gourmand frosting thing on my skin that I don’t care for. There is a supporting sizzle of opoponax and at times I get a dry splintery wood, not something I would necessarily recognize as oud. Over the life of the scent, the wood gets stronger and there are moments when it really does conjur rime-coated branches. At these moments this is a love for me, but they are too fleeting. I know from

other blends like Lace Lichen that the particular effect of the ambergris that I dislike here is likely to fade with time, so I will hold onto my imp but so far this is unlikely to inspire a full bottle purchase. Overall, a chilly, chiaroscuro scent but with an emphasis on the bright white notes. I would recommend for people who are looking for a frosty scent that isn’t just a blast of ice. 

[Assimbya]

I tend to be wary of oud and this didn't sound like my style, but I was determined to try the whole Erl King collection and I'm very glad I did give this one a chance! On me it's dark, regal, imposing, and very cold, like deep black ice. There's strong incense and a complex woodiness given a sense of sophistication and remove from the ambergris and icy notes; the eucalyptus increases the chill, clean feeling, but does not pull it too herbal. This feels very effectively atmospheric to me - I can picture some kind of dimly lit, icy throne room for a dark woodland king, redolent with incense - but at the same time the muskiness of the ambergris keeps it feeling like a perfume, like something belongs on skin.

 

I am fascinated with this one, which seems to be a reaction I've had to a number of scents in the Erl King collection. I want to spend more time with it, and this review feels a little premature for that reason, but since there are so few reviews of this one it felt worth sharing initial impressions. I don't think it's one I will find much occasion to wear often, so I doubt I will need more than a decant, but I feel very struck by it and glad to have the chance to try it.

Edited 14 hours ago by Assimbya